The present invention relates generally to vehicular maintenance and, more particularly, to systems and methods for replacing transmission fluid.
For the past several years, substantial attention has been directed to the field of transmission fluid changers. Such systems are useful, for example, in draining the oil from a vehicle transmission system in order to replace the transmission filter and/or to completely replace the old transmission fluid with new fluid. Existing transmission fluid changers such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,184, U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,064, U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,080 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,160 require substantial human intervention during the fluid exchange process.
However, there is an intense need within the industry to provide a more efficient, less time consuming and a more user-friendly system for transmission fluid replacement that substantially reduces human intervention.
In view of this necessity, it is believed that those skilled in the art would find automated systems and methods for draining, filling and changing of transmission fluid to be quite useful.